Method And System For Emergency Notification

ABSTRACT

Method and apparatus for notifying an emergency responder of a vehicle emergency. Communication is established with a cellular telephone located within the vehicle. The communication link is monitored and the vehicle occupant is notified of link loss. The apparatus monitors vehicle safety systems for detection of an emergency condition. Upon detection, the occupant is notified that an emergency call will be made. If no cancellation is received, vehicle location information is obtained from a global position system, synthesized into voice signals, and communicated to an emergency responder using the cellular telephone. A plurality of occupant and vehicle emergency information may also be provided. Emergency responders may be provided with a touch tone menu to select among the available information. Vehicle and occupant information may be communicated to the apparatus from external sources, such as a web server database via cellular telephone connection, or removable memory.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/769,346, filed Jun. 27, 2007. The disclosure of which is incorporatedin its entirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method andsystem for notifying emergency responders in the event of an automobileaccident or other emergency.

2. Background Art

ONSTAR offers a SAFE & SOUND program in which a human “Advisor” fieldsemergency calls from ONSTAR-equipped vehicles. Calls are manuallyinitiated at the vehicle either by depressing an emergency buttonlocated within the passenger compartment (e.g. below the rear-viewmirror), or automatically initiated upon deployment of an air bag in theevent of a collision. Collisions may be detected using one or moreaccelerometers or other impact detecting devices mounted within thevehicle, as is well known in the art.

An emergency call from an ONSTAR-equipped vehicle to the Advisorswitchboard indicates the geographic location of the vehicle, and placesthe Advisor in voice communication with the passenger compartment. TheAdvisor attempts to communicate with the occupant(s) of the vehicle todetermine the severity and circumstances of the incident giving rise tothe emergency call. If the Advisor determines that emergency attentionis necessary, either because of the occupant response(s), or becausethere was no response indicating that the occupant(s) may be ejectedand/or severely injured, the Advisor dispatches emergency respondersclosest to the reported location of the vehicle.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,669 titled “Method And Apparatus For DetectingVehicular Collisions” describes a cellular telephone that is equippedwith technology for detecting a vehicular collision. This system isportable and operates independently, without the need of embeddedvehicular subsystems, such as an accelerometer to detect collisions or aglobal positioning system to detect vehicle velocity and location. Thesesubsystems are embedded into the cellular telephone described in the'669 patent. The '699 patent describes communicating electronic data,such as the magnitude, time and location of the collision to authoritiesin the even a collision is detected. The '699 patent also describesplaying prerecorded messages about the device's owner, including medicalinformation. The '699 patent describes various software “filters” forscreening out “false positives” or “false collision detections” to avoidunnecessarily contacting emergency responders in non-emergencysituations, such as when the cellular telephone is accidently dropped.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,180 titled “Telephone Operable Global TrackingSystem For Vehicles” describes a system for tracking vehicles using acellular telephone and global positioning system that is located in thevehicle. The system also includes a speech synthesizer circuit thatconverts the digitally-encoded coordinates into speech for enunciatingthe vehicle location through the cellular telephone. By calling thecellular telephone from a remote location, the owner of the vehicle candetermine its location. The '180 patent also describes using the systemto call the police.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,286 titled “Cellular Phone Based Automatic EmergencyVessel/Vehicle Location System” describes a navigation unit thatreceives GPS data, and upon receipt of an activation event such as anairbag deployment, causes DTMF tones to be generated in a cellulartelephone for dialing an emergency responder. The geographic locationinformation and the identity of the vehicle are synthesized into voiceand are then communicated to the emergency responder using the cellulartelephone connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of one or more embodiments of the present invention is toprovide an improved emergency notification system that can promptlycommunicate emergency information to emergency responders in the eventof an automobile accident or other emergency.

Embodiments of the present invention enable users to customize theinformation that is presented to responders in the event of anemergency. For example, a user may access a database or other datastorage device associated with the invention to define or otherwisecustomize information to be presented to the emergency responders in theevent of an emergency call, such as name, address, blood type, medicalallergies, doctor contact information, relatives, etc.

Embodiments of the present invention enable emergency respondersreceiving an emergency call to select among a variety of availableinformation that may be useful in responding to an emergency. Respondersmay be provided with a voice-synthesized menu to repeat and/or selectamong the available information using DTMF tones. In this fashion, themost urgent information, such as vehicle location, number of persons,etc. may be reported/received first, but other important information canbe subsequently obtained at the responders' discretion. Anotherembodiment of the invention provides the responders with online accessto driver/passenger emergency information.

Another objective of one or more embodiments of the present invention isto prevent unnecessary notification of emergency responders innon-emergency situations. Upon detection of an emergency situationwithin the vehicle, such as an airbag deployment, one or more audiblemessages are played asking the occupant(s) to press a cancel button ifthe emergency call is to be cancelled. If the button is not pressedwithin a predetermined amount of time, the emergency call may beinitiated.

Another objective of one or more embodiments of the present invention isto maintain continuous connectivity between the vehicle emergencyresponse module and at least one cellular telephone within the vehicle.Appropriate notifications and status indicators may be provided toinform vehicle occupants that connectivity is established, or broken.

Embodiments of the present invention include a process and apparatus fornotifying an emergency responder of a vehicle emergency. A firstcommunication link, such as a BLUETOOTH link, is established with afirst cellular telephone located within the vehicle. A connection statusfor the first communication link is monitored, and an indication to avehicle occupant is generated if the first communication link is lost.The process monitors for receipt of an emergency signal indicating anemergency condition associated with the vehicle. If an emergency signalis received, a location for the vehicle is retrieved from a globalpositioning system. An indication is made to the occupant of the vehiclethat a cellular telephone call to an emergency responder is going to bemade to report the emergency and vehicle location. The occupant'sresponse, if any, is monitored. If cancellation is not received, thecellular telephone is activated to dial a telephone number of anemergency responder. Data representing the emergency and location of thevehicle are processed into speech signals, and are communicated to theemergency responder over the first communication link.

Another embodiment of the present invention includes storing a pluralityof occupant or vehicle information in a data storage device, andpresenting the emergency responder with voice menu options for selectingone or more items of the plurality of occupant or vehicle information.

Another embodiment of the present invention enables the communication ofone or more items of occupant or vehicle information to a Web server viathe Internet, and then to the associated data storage device using acellular telephone within the vehicle. Items of occupant or vehicleinformation may also be downloaded to the associated data storagedevice, or stored in a removable memory device interfaced to the dataprocessor.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the emergencyresponder is provided with a touch tone menu to select among theplurality of occupant and vehicle information.

Another embodiment of the present invention establishes a secondcommunication link with a second cellular telephone within the vehicleif the first communication link with the first cellular telephone islost.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention activates the cellulartelephone to dial a telephone number of a predefined contact other thanan emergency responder, and communicate the speech signals to thepredefined contact.

These objectives and embodiments of the present invention are notexclusive. Other objectives and embodiments of the present invention aredetailed in the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments, the accompanying figures and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating aspects of physical embodimentsof the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a BLUETOOTH controller which may beimplemented to support aspects and embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for implementingembodiments of the present invention.

These figures are not exclusive representations of the systems andprocesses that may be implemented to carry out the inventions recited inthe appended claims. Those of skill in the art will recognize that theillustrated system and process embodiments may be modified or otherwiseadapted to meet a claimed implementation of the present invention, orequivalents thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

FIG. 1 illustrates a physical system architecture which may beimplemented to practice one or more aspects of the present invention.Block 10 generally comprises vehicle sub-systems, some of which may beinterconnected by a vehicle network 12 such as a Controller Area Networkor other suitable communication network.

Data processor 16 may receive and send information across vehiclenetwork 12 through an appropriate network interface or bus adapter 24.Data processor 16 may be a traditional RISC or CISC processor in buscommunication with general purpose volatile memory 26, and generalpurpose non-volatile or persistent storage 22, such as magnetic or flashmemory, as is well known in the art. Removable memory 40 may also beprovided, such as a compact flash card or a flash memory module having aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) interface (not shown).

A global positioning signal receiver/processor 14 may be implemented toreceive radio signals (e.g. the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHFband) from multiple satellites of the Navigation Signal Timing andRanging (NAVSTAR) Global Positioning System. These signals may include apseudorandom code identifying the transmitting satellite, ephemeris dataand almanac data. The global positioning signal receiver/processor 14may process this data to determine the two-dimensional location (e.g.latitude and longitude), the three-dimensional location (e.g. latitude,longitude and altitude), the velocity and/or the direction of thevehicle. Location, velocity and/or direction information calculated atthe global positioning signal receiver/processor 14 may be communicatedacross vehicle network 12, and/or directly to data processor 16 via link18.

Alternatively, a global positioning signal receiver/processor 53 may bea subsystem of cellular telephone 50. Information representing theglobal position of the cellular telephone, and thus the vehicle in whichthe cellular telephone is located, may be retrieved by data processor 16via transceiver 38 and communication link 46.

The vehicle sub-systems may include a map database 20. Database 20, likegeneral storage 22, may take several forms including but no limited tomagnetic storage (e.g. a hard drive), optical storage (e.g. CD-ROM,DVD), flash memory, etc. Data processor 16 may determine a presentstreet location and heading of the vehicle based on latitude, longitudeand direction data received from GPS receiver/processor, and map dataretrieved from database 20, as is well known in the art.

A plurality of emergency condition sensors 28 may be interfaced tovehicle network 28. Such sensors may include but are not limited to airbag deployment sensors, vehicle impact sensors, dash impact sensors,seat/occupant impact sensors, rollover sensors, flame/heat sensors,gasoline sensors and an occupant-activated panic button. These sensorsmay operate within individual processing modules (not shown), eachhaving a separate interface (not shown) to the vehicle network 12 forsending signals indicating a plurality of different emergencyconditions.

Another subsystem in communication with data processor 16 includes avoice synthesizer or decoder 28 for converting digital informationreceived from the data processor 16 into audible speech signals, i.e.analog sound signals. The analog sound signals may be communicatedthrough speaker 32, or processed at transceiver 38, for communication tocellular telephone 50 transceiver (not shown) across piconet 46 asdiscussed in greater detail below. A dual tone multifrequency (DTMF)interface 30 may be provided for receiving analog DTMF frequencies andprocessing them as command signals to data processor 16, as is wellknown in the art of automated telephone menu systems.

Transceiver 38 may establish a piconet 46 with cellular telephone 50 orother available device. Cellular telephone 50 is an example of atransient cellular communication device that is not permanentlyintegrated into the vehicle. Another example of a transient cellularcommunication device may be a laptop computer having cellularcommunication and piconet communication capabilities.

In one example, transceiver 38 may comprise a BLUETOOTH controller.Those of skill in the art will recognize that other transceivers may beused having different communication characteristics and performance.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, a BLUETOOTH controller may include a linkmanager layer 82, a baseband layer 84 and a radio layer 86. The radiolayer 86 may include a radio frequency module operating at 2.4 GHz usingbinary frequency modulation.

Baseband layer 84 may include a baseband resource manager 92 formanaging the exchange of data between connected devices over logicallinks and logical transports, as well as the use of the radio medium tocarry out inquiries, make connections, or be discoverable.

Baseband layer 84 may also include a link controller 90 which handlesencoding and decoding of BLUETOOTH packets from the data payload andparameters related to the physical channel, logical transport andlogical link. The link controller 90 carries out the link controlprotocol signaling which is used to communicate flow control andacknowledgment and retransmission request signals.

Device manager 94 controls the general behavior of the BLUETOOTH enableddevice. It is responsible for operation of the BLUETOOTH system that isnot directly related to data transport, such as inquiring for thepresence of other nearby devices, connecting to other devices or makingthe local device discoverable or connectable by other devices.

The link manager layer 82 may include a link manager 96 for managing thecreation, modification, and release of logical links and/or logicaltransports, as well as the update of parameters related to physicallinks between devices. The link manager may achieve this bycommunicating with the link manager in remote BLUETOOTH devices usingthe link management protocol (LMP). The LMP allows the creation of newlogical links and logical transports between devices when required, aswell as the general control of link and transport attributes such as theenabling of encryption on the logical transport, the adapting oftransmit power on the physical link or the adjustment of QoS settingsfor a logical link.

Other vehicle subsystems 10 include a link status indicator 36 fornotifying vehicle occupants of the status of the communication linkbetween transceiver 38 and cellular telephone 50. Statuses include butare not limited to available devices, paired, unpaired, connected, notconnected, etc. In one embodiment, the status of the communication linkis indicated on a liquid crystal display (LCD). In another embodiment,one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) or other visual indicators areprovided. In yet another embodiment, audible status notifications areprovided through the vehicle sound system and/or speaker 32. Link statusmay be monitored by data processor 16 in conjunction with transceiver38.

A select/cancel switch 34 may also interface with data processor 16 forpush-button control over microprocessor/system functions as described ingreater detail below. Select/cancel switch 34 may be a soft switchoperating in conjunction with a LCD display, or a software switchoperated by voice command received at microphone 32 and processed byvoice synthesizer 28 and/or microprocessor 16.

A wide variety of different interconnections among subsystems 10 andexternal communication networks may be practiced within the scope of thepresent invention, beyond those illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, ahard wire connection may be established between cellular telephone 50and data processor 16, voice synthesizer 28, and/or DTMF interface 30.In another example, data processor 16 may be connected directly orindirectly to emergency sensor modules 28, and may monitor the ports towhich the emergency sensor modules are attached instead of vehiclenetwork 12.

In one embodiment of the present invention, cellular telephone 50establishes wireless communication 48 with terrestrial tower 52.Terrestrial tower 52 in turn established communication through telephoneswitching network 54 with emergency responder(s) 56. Emergencyresponders may include police, ambulance a 911 public safety accesspoint (PSAP), etc. as described in greater detail below. Terrestrialtower 52 may also establish communication through telephone switchingnetwork 54 with other contacts 58, as described in greater detail below.

In another embodiment of the present invention, terrestrial tower 52 mayestablish communication through telephone switching network 54 with adata interface (not shown) at web server 60. As described in greaterdetail below, data may be uploaded and downloaded communicated fromassociated database 68 to/from storage 22 associated with microprocessor16, as illustrated by dashed line 70.

Web server 60 having associated storage 68 may host a plurality of webpages for Internet access 62 by a plurality of browsers, including butnot limited to emergency responder(s) 66, cellular telephone owner(s)64, healthcare providers, etc. As described in greater detail below,some browsers, such as cellular telephone owners 64 may upload data overInternet 62 to storage 68, and other browsers, such as emergencyresponders 66 may download data

FIG. 3 illustrates an example algorithm 100 for implementing anembodiment of the present invention. Those of skill in the art willrecognize that the scope of the present invention is not limited to thespecific algorithm illustrated in FIG. 3. The illustrated process maymodified to fit a particular implementation of the present invention.The processes illustrated in FIG. 3 may be implemented by one or moreprocessors, such as data processor 16 illustrated in FIG. 1. Noparticular type of processor or configuration is required.

At step 102, a local communication link may be established with anavailable cellular telephone in or nearby the vehicle passengercompartment. The link may be a BLUETOOTH piconet, or other suitableshort-range network, wired or wireless. At steps 104 and 106, the statusof the communication link may monitored on a continuous or basis, or atregular intervals. The status of the link may include the connectivityof the paired cellular telephone, the signal strength, the identity ofother available devices, etc. s described with respect to FIG. 1, linkstatus may be reported by LCD display, LED, or audibly. Preferably, awarning or other notification is provided to passengers within thevehicle compartment when a link is disrupted, or when no link isavailable.

At step 108, an emergency notification signal is received from vehicleemergency sensors 110. Vehicle emergency sensors 110 may include but arenot limited to air bag deployment sensors, vehicle impact sensors, dashimpact sensors, seat impact sensors, rollover sensors, flame sensors,gasoline sensors, etc. Emergency signals from these sensors may bereceived at data processor 16 directly by wire, wirelessly, or overvehicle network 12.

Upon receipt of an emergency notification signal, the system may notifyoccupants of the vehicle, at step 112, that an emergency call to one ormore emergency responders 56 or other contacts 58 is going to be made atcellular telephone 50. Occupant notification is preferably done audiblyusing voice synthesizer 28 and speaker 32 which may or may not be acomponent of the vehicle sound system. The following is an examplenotification:

“Warning. A safety sensor in this vehicle has detected a vehiclecollision. The vehicle safety system will automatically contactemergency responders in 10 seconds. Press your cancel button or sayCANCEL if you want to terminate this call.”

Of course, an unlimited number of different notifications may beprovided. They may be pre-recorded, pre-defined, or dynamically createdbased on the particular emergency detected and/or the particularoccupant(s) within the vehicle. Preferably, the notification isrepeated. At step 114, the vehicle occupants are provided with anopportunity to cancel the emergency call using the select/cancel switch22 or a voice command received at microphone 32 and voice synthesizer28. If a cancellation signal is received, the process stops, and returnsto monitoring link status at block 104.

If the emergency call is not terminated at 114, emergency information iscollected at step 118. Emergency information may include vehicleinformation 116 and occupant information 120. Vehicle information 116may include latitude, longitude, direction, last velocity, etc from GPSreceiver/processor 14, street location if the vehicle is equipped withmap data 20, vehicle type/color, vehicle emergency condition (e.g.,impact, fire, rollover, fire, gasoline leak, etc.), number of occupants,seat belt status, etc. Occupant information 120 may include name, age,address, blood type, medical allergies, medical condition, insuranceinformation, physician information, emergency contact(s), etc. Emergencyinformation may be stored in a plurality of storage locations includingmemory 26, storage 22, removable memory 40, or storage 51 associatedwith cellular telephone 50.

Occupant identification may be determined by the owner of the cellulartelephone 50 paired with transceiver 38, voice input at microphone 32,user input at a vehicle console display (not shown), or other meansincluding key identifier, memory key identifier, etc.

After emergency information is collected at step 118, another occupantnotification may be made warning the occupant(s) that an emergency callis going to be made, and providing the occupant(s) with an opportunityto cancel the call, as described above with respect to steps 112 and114. This step is represented by dashed lines 128.

If the emergency call is not canceled, transceiver 38 such as aBLUETOOTH controller may initiate a call on cellular telephone 50 to oneor more emergency responders 56 or other contacts 58 at step 121. If acall cannot be initiated, the system attempts to establish connectionwith another cellular telephone in or nearby the vehicle as representedat block 122, and communicate the emergency information as representedat block 121.

At step 124, elements of vehicle information 116 and/or occupantinformation 120 may be synthesized into speech signals at voicesynthesizer 28 and read to the terminating party 56 or 58 as indicatedat block 126. In one embodiment of the present invention, the dataprocessor 16 and the voice synthesizer 28 provide the terminating party56 or 58 with touch tone DTMF menu options for repeating and retrievingthe various elements of vehicle information 116 and/or occupantinformation 120. This process is illustrated with dashed lines 130 and132.

If the occupant(s) have identified additional contacts 58 for reportingemergency information, those entities are contacted, and emergencyinformation is reported, as represented by step 134.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, emergency responders 66 and cellulartelephone/vehicle owners 64 are provided with Internet access to webserver 60 having associated storage 68. Cellular telephone/vehicleowners 64 may access one or more Web pages hosted at server 60 fordefining the emergency information to be provided to emergencyresponders 56 and 66, and/or the manner in which that information isprovided. For example, cellular telephone/vehicle owners 64 may specifytheir name, age (date of birth), address, blood type, medical allergies,medical conditions, physician, emergency contact persons, etc. Cellulartelephone/vehicle owners 64 may specify which of this information isdisclosed to emergency responders 56 and/or 66 in the event of anemergency. The emergency information may be uploaded to cellulartelephone storage 51 via cellular link 48, and/or to in-vehicle storage22 for reporting via voice synthesizer 28 to emergency responders 56 andother contacts 58 in the event of an emergency.

The emergency information may also be stored in a database 68 associatedwith web server 68 for Internet access by emergency responders 66 in theevent of an emergency. In one embodiment, speech transmission toemergency responders 56 includes instructions for accessing occupantemergency information at server 60 over the Internet 62. In this manner,emergency responders 56 and/or 66 can readily access all of anoccupant's emergency information.

While the best mode for carrying out the invention has been described indetail, those familiar with the art to which this invention relates willrecognize various alternative designs and embodiments for practicing theinvention as defined by the following claims.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: determining, using avehicle computing system (VCS) in communication with at least onevehicle sensor, that the vehicle sensor has detected an emergencycondition; and using the VCS to wirelessly instruct a cellular telephonein proximity to the VCS to establish direct communication with a 911operator for responding to the detected emergency condition.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising using the VCS to transmitinformation about the emergency condition to the 911 operator.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the information includes data pertaining toat least one vehicle occupant.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein thedata pertaining to at least one vehicle occupant includes at least oneoccupant medical condition.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the datapertaining to at least one vehicle occupant includes insuranceinformation.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the data pertaining to atleast one vehicle occupant includes physician information.
 7. The methodof claim 3, wherein the data pertaining to at least one vehicle occupantincludes emergency contact information.
 8. The method of claim 3,wherein the data pertaining to at least one vehicle occupant is storedin a memory connected to the VCS.
 9. The method of claim 3, wherein thedata pertaining to at least one vehicle occupant is stored a memoryconnected to the cellular telephone.
 10. The method of claim 2, whereinthe information includes vehicle location information.
 11. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the information includes data pertaining to a state ofthe vehicle.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data pertaining tothe state of the vehicle includes impact information.
 13. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the data pertaining to the state of the vehicleincludes seat belt connection information.
 14. The method of claim 11,wherein the data pertaining to the state of the vehicle includes anumber of vehicle occupants.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein thedata pertaining to the state of the vehicle includes an indication thatthe vehicle has rolled-over.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein thedata pertaining to the state of the vehicle includes an indication thatthe vehicle is on fire.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the datapertaining to the state of the vehicle includes an indication that thevehicle has a fuel leak.
 18. The method of claim 2, wherein theinformation further includes vehicle identification information.
 19. Acomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, whenexecuted, cause a vehicle computing system (VCS) to perform a methodcomprising: determining that a vehicle sensor in communication with theVCS has detected an emergency condition; and instructing direct 911operator contact through a cellular phone in wireless communication withthe VCS.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: relaying, fromthe VCS through the cellular phone to the 911 operator, informationabout the emergency condition.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein theinformation includes data pertaining to at least one vehicle occupant.22. The method of claim 20, wherein the information includes datapertaining to at least one of a state or location of the vehicle.
 23. Asystem comprising: a vehicle computing system (VCS); and at least oneemergency condition sensor, operable to convey at least one emergencycondition detection signal to the VCS, wherein, upon receipt of the atleast one emergency condition detection signal, the VCS is operable toinstruct a cellular phone, in wireless communication with the VCS, todirectly contact a 911 operator for responding to the emergencycondition.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein the VCS is furtheroperable to relay information about the emergency condition through thecellular phone to the 911 operator.
 25. The method of claim 24, whereinthe information includes data pertaining to at least one vehicleoccupant.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the information includesdata pertaining to at least one of a state or location of the vehicle.